5 of The Best and Least Expensive Laptops

Purchasing a new laptop is never a straightforward, with any potential buyers having to decide the spec of laptop they want, the colour and size. What’s more, some of the best performing laptops are the most expensive. However, having a budget doesn’t necessarily mean you have to sacrifice quality. In fact, there are some laptops under £500 yet still perform excellently.

When choosing a laptop, you generally have to compromise between price, size and power. If you are aiming to buy a laptop for under £500, you will have to accept that you won’t be getting the best spec available. Nevertheless, you can still buy a well-functioning laptop that isn’t expensive.

The laptops will have good processors, a reasonable size of RAM and enough storage space. Luckily, streaming services like Netflix and Spotify means that laptops aren’t so reliant on local storage, but you’ll still need enough space for your documents and photos.

For £500 and below, a MacBook is certainly not an option. Mac systems are generally some of the best performing systems and also the most expensive. Fortunately, Windows 10 runs extremely well on less high-end hardware.

Here is a list of some of the best laptops you can buy for under £500:

DELL Inspiron 15 5570:

CPU:Intel Core i3-7130U (1.5GHz/2.7GHz dual-core)

Screen: 6-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution

RAM: 8GB

Storage: 1TB HDD

Strengths: Plenty of local storage and an expansive, high-resolution screen.

Weaknesses: On the larger, heavier side

Price: £429.99

This laptop is excellent value for money. With the generous RAM and storage, there’s plenty of space to store photos, music and movies locally. Silver is the only colour choice but the laptop itself looks very high-end. There are many USB ports as well as an SD card reader and a HDMI connector, so you can link to another screen.

HP Pavilion 14-BK052SA:

CPU:Intel Core i3-7100U (2.4GHz dual-core)

Screen: 14-inch, 1366 x 768-pixel resolution

RAM: 8GB

Storage: 128GB SSD

Strengths: Plenty of RAM for apps and a larger screen than many of the other budget models.

Weaknesses: There isn’t much local storage

Price: £419

With this particular model, there is a generous amount of RAM combined with a large screen. There is also a B&O audio system as well as various ports that include HDMI out and USB-C. Additionally, silver and white are your colour choices.

ASUS Vivobook 14 X405:

CPU:Intel Core i3-7100U (2.4GHz dual-core)

Screen: 14-inch, 1366 x 768-pixel resolution

RAM: 4GB

Storage: 128GB SSD

Strengths: Good quality screen for the price and excellent speed.

Weaknesses: Not the most powerful option

Price: £349.99

The screen is perfect for watching movies and TV shows, which also makes the HDMI port extremely handy as well. The main issue with this laptop is that it won’t be able to handle arduous tasks like video editing, but it can easily speed through emailing, word processing and social networking. Essentially, this is a simple laptop that is perfect for everyday use.

LENOVO Yoga 520-14IKB:

CPU:Intel Pentium Gold 4415U (2.2GHz dual-core)

Screen: 14-inch, 1366 x 768-pixel resolution

RAM: 4GB

Storage: 128GB SSD

Strengths: Rotating hinge for the 14-inch display

Weaknesses: Not able to support demanding tasks

Price: £499.99

Even with a budget, you can still get a 2-in-1 device that has a rotating touch screen that can double up as a tablet. There is a huge of choice of how you can position and use this laptop.

Generally, the other specs aren’t as impressive but can still handle everyday tasks. Students would stand to benefit from this device, or anyone who just needs a functioning laptop and doesn’t do video editing or high-end gaming. You can also choose from black, gold and silver colours.

ACER CB3-431 Chromebook:

CPU:Intel Celeron N3160 (1.6GHz quad-core)

Screen: 14-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution

RAM: 4GB

Storage: 32GB SSD

Strengths: Fast, secure and low maintenance with a high-resolution screen.

Weaknesses: Everything is run from and stored on the web.

Price: £269.99

All computing is completed through the internet with Chromebooks. Although you can’t install desktop programs, you won’t need to worry about large software updates, anti-virus software or your system slowing over time. The screen is relatively large with high resolution than many other laptops at this price point. Out of all of the options, the Chromebook is the least expensive.

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